The power of Three

If you take some time and step aside from your daily activity you might have noticed that there is some kind of structure in the activities you are doing and also in the environment you’re in. If you have enough imagination you might come back every time on the number 3.

In old days of school I learned the words "Trias Politica". Doing some wiki-search learned me that the original thoughts about this come from Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu he described in Montesquieu's tripartite system "division of political power among an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary. He based this model on the British constitutional system, in which he perceived a separation of powers among the monarch, Parliament, and the courts of law."

Of course you might come up with more examples which extend the number 3. When thinking you can come up with examples like these:
a. test manager - test coordinator - tester
b. time - money - quality
c. system under test - test environment - testware
d. requirement - functionality - test script
e. errors - faults - failures
f. development - testing - implementation
g. plan - do - check
h. junior - medior - senior
i. test preparation - test specification - test execution
j. ....

Looking at these items you will see that you might have to deal with it during your job. If you can only figure 2 items you might spend some time to identify the third item. If you come you come up with more items it might trigger you to separate those until you have those items which are in perspective to each other. To get this you might keep in mind which belongs to these: executive, legislature, judiciary.

I think this is important as these items will influence you daily work. They can support your activities or endanger the things you are doing. I think it is important to know who your “allies” are and who your “foes” are. I think it is important to know what you miss or perhaps were you made a "wrong" linkage to one of the 3 items of the "Trias Policita".

This might help you better to understand your work, your role and your activities. Based on this you can improve your selves and the process.

Of course there are more things to say about this topic. Perhaps you think it doesn't work in your situation. I like to hear about it and learn from you fellow testers.